


Gossip

by Luxicorde



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: I'm tired of just porn I wanna see some god damn romance!, It's just the soft because I'm on mobile and can't post to tumblr, M/M, Tumblr: FFXIVwrite, You can pry loving mlm relationships from my cold dead hands though, there is no porn here I'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 17:44:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20800436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luxicorde/pseuds/Luxicorde
Summary: For Prompt 27: Palaver. Everything I wrote for Calum in 2018 is basically no longer canon, so if you go back and read those, keep that in mind.





	Gossip

It had been a long time now.

Calum didn't keep track, couldn't when so much of it just wasn't there, but he knew it had been a few moons since he'd been allowed out of his cell for good. Igesi had told him it was closer to a summer, and he didn't have a reason not to trust him after everything. The others were nicer now, at least. It had taken him a long time to actually start interacting with them, and a longer time for them to start treating him like family…

Family. It was still weird to think of them like that, after what they did, but he didn't have anyone else. The Mol wouldn't take him back after this, and there was no where else for him on the steppes. After the first few moons, after they trusted him enough and he trusted them, they treated him better. It wasn't awful now, and Igesi constantly told him how much he was improving.

Igesi _also_ tried to push him to get to know the others.

Calum… didn't really enjoy the others. They had gotten more bearable, but he hated how they seemed to not know or care what boundaries were. It didn't help that he was forced to wear the same clothes as the others, if they could even be called that. There was more of him on display than was covered, and he figured being naked would feel less revealing. He couldn't cover up and the others didn't even try to hide when they were staring.

He didn't used to mind things like this, but now…

It felt like be was on display for all the wrong reasons.

Igesi assured him that he had nothing to hide and that he should be proud of his body, but Calum hated it. He _used_ to be proud of it, and he used to show off his scars with pride. But now he had scales that traced all over his body, claws and teeth like razors, a great big tail he couldn't control, and horns that sat heavy on his head as a reminder of what he'd done.

He should be dead. His plan should have killed him, but it didn't. Now he was left looking like this, not quite the way he was but not like the Drahn around him.

_Like a demon_.

Calum had tried to explain to Igesi once, but he was interrupted and Igesi hadn't understood anyway. The others asked him but they didn't get it either. He'd caught several of them talking about it once, some of them saying his parents must have been mixed or something. One of the braver ones asked him about it, and Igesi had to stop him from leaping at the other man.

Igesi had told them off at least. “We’re all brothers, now. It doesn't matter where we came from,” he'd said. He said it whenever he could but Calum was beginning to think there was something else behind it. The way the others (he refused to call them brothers after what they'd done, even if they were now ‘family’) scattered like rats away from torchlight when Igesi said that made him curious.

It wasn't until much, much later that he found out why.

  
It had been even longer now, well past a summer. By now he'd agreed to call the others his brothers, even if it still left a sour taste in his mouth. He still hated the way his body was put on display, but it was easier now. His brothers had started to accept him, and while Igesi was still constantly by his side, it wasn't for the same reason anymore. He could go where he wanted without Igesi now, but he preferred his company.

It was when Igesi was out on a hunt that he found out why the others respected him so much, rivaling their respect for Daidukul even.

He'd been drinking, coming home early from a hunt with a baras slung over his shoulder. The question had just slipped out, he hadn't been thinking and had long since lost the tact to read the situation after asking. Calum was just curious, though, and most of the others were fine with sharing information on their past lives.

“He didn't tell you?” From across the fire one of his brothers leaned forward, elbow rested on his knee for a makeshift armrest and tail lazily curling behind him.

“If I knew I wouldn't be asking.” That got a chuckle from a few of the others, though they quickly quieted down as the older man sighed.

“Nothing for it, then. His tribe sold him to us like livestock, back before we were allied to the buduga.” He paused to stretch, back cracking and earning a few groans of sympathy from the others. “The Tabito, cruel bunch of bastards. They have a thing for twins, and since Igesi’s twin died when they popped out of his mom’s belly, they thought he was cursed. Treated him like shit, they did, so when we came to raid they offered tribute instead. Offered him up like a prized goat-”

“I hope you aren't making up lies about me.”

The old man fell back, startled by seeing Igesi appear just at the edge of the firelight. Calum could feel him come closer, and he was embarrassed with the way he almost melted into him when Igesi sat down at his side.

“N-not at all! Calum was just curious, no harm in sharing-”

“It isn't your story to tell.”

There was no anger to his voice, no venomous bite, but Calum had never known him to show anger and the way the older man backed away told him everything he needed to know. The subject quickly changed, and as it got later more and more of his brothers left the fire to go to bed or take care of their nightly duties.

Igesi stayed with him, not speaking but slowly going from just being near him to holding his hand, then to wrapping an arm around his waist, pulling him closer until eventually Calum was almost sat in his lap.

It… it was too close to Gera. Too close to how it used to be. He could feel himself getting choked up, wanting nothing more than to get out of this but at the same time not being able to get enough.

“What's wrong?”

Igesi’s voice from above him snapped him out of it. It may have felt familiar, but that was too different. Gera had been deep and rough, gravel at the bottom of a still lake, while Igesi was sharper, more like the wind in winter. It was as comforting as it was heartbreaking to him.

“Is it true?”

He felt Igesi shift, and when he looked up to his face he saw the usual furrowed brow, pinching at the scales on his nose as his eyes pierced into him.

“That… that your tribe _sold_ you.”

His expression softened instantly, and he closed his eyes, almost as if he was looking back on a fond memory.

“They did, yes, but it was the best they'd ever done for me. The buduga are more like family to me than the Tabito ever were.”

Everything sort of clicked into place at that. Calum couldn't say that the buduga had helped him, but saying they were terrible wasn't quite true either.

“It's getting late, Calum. We should go to bed.”


End file.
